Slowing Down for the Season

I know that in Colorado many of us are weekend warriors, constantly on the go with an array of outdoor activities, exercise and fitness regimes, jam-packed schedules and places to be. I think that one of the best parts about this time of year is the opportunity to slow down and step back from the constant business and rushing around.

Being busy is a pretty much a huge badge of success in our culture. Many of us base our sense of self worth on how much we are able to accomplish and pack into our schedules. Add to this that the cognitive and mental demands of modern life are only increasing. Recently I have been trying to sort through all of the login and password information I have for the various websites I use - banking, paying bills, shopping, personal interests, continuing education for my profession. So. Many. Logins. So many passwords!

Sometimes we don’t really have much choice in the matter in terms of how busy we are at a given time in our life. It’s just the reality of what is. Work cycles and deadlines, the end of the school semester, family life being full and ongoing. But it’s such a good idea to think about counteracting some of this constant activity with rest and downtime. Being constantly busy might signify a busy and full life, but there are downsides, and when we’ve exhausted our body’s reserves, it has a way of letting us know, whether we like it or not.

Another interesting thing about being busy all of the time is that we never really have a chance to check in with ourselves and integrate our experience and make it a part of who we are. It’s like we’re constantly playing catch-up and are always out of sync on some level. We can’t believe we’re at the end of November when just yesterday it felt like August. We don’t have the time or the space to take our emotional temperature and feel our emotions, to check in with our inner landscape. We don’t have the time to process and digest and contemplate what’s happening in our world and how it impacts our life. We don’t have the space to feel the nuance and ambiguity and largeness of living a human life. There’s too much to do!

There is way more to life than being busy, and hopefully this season can be a chance to reconnect with our human beingness and not just our human doingness. You don’t need to do anything more or accomplish anything else to prove your worthiness as a human being. It could be a chance to reconnect with a favorite hobby, start a meditation practice, or catch up on sleep. Rest is powerful medicine and I hope we all get to have an abundant dose of it in the months to come.